


Adventures in Co-Parenting

by inkedroses



Series: Eccedentesiast [3]
Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Elf Culture & Customs, Elves, Gen, Jaskier and Yennefer's child, Jaskier | Dandelion & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg Friendship, Orchidea, Parent Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, blurbs, snippits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:01:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22658230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkedroses/pseuds/inkedroses
Summary: Snippits from the first five years of Orchidea's, Jaskier and Yennefer's adopted elf child, life.
Series: Eccedentesiast [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1623829
Comments: 30
Kudos: 262





	1. Year One

**Author's Note:**

> This one will be short. Not sure about the rest.

Yennefer was running circles on Orchidea’s smooth arm as the baby was tucked up against her chest, hand gripping onto her nightdress. She turned away from her book and smiled down at her, brushing away a tuft of black hair from her face. 

Her head snapped up as she heard the front door slam open, Jaskier stepping through with an apologetic expression. Yennefer sighed in exasperation as he held up a pouch of coins like it made up for the fact that he had nearly awakened the baby she was holding. 

“What kept you so late?” She whispered, standing up. 

“He would only pay me if I kept the audience there until one,” Jaskier explained, tickling Orchidea’s cheek with his finger. “But at least I got the coin.” 

“You don’t need to work,” Yennefer told him, beginning to take Orchidea off of her to hand her to Jaskier. “I make enough coin for the three of us.” 

Jaskier reached out to meet her halfway when Orchidea stuck her hands out, grabbing at Yennefer. 

“Momma,” she whined lowly, as though she didn’t realize she was speaking, eyes still shut. 

Jaskier and Yennefer’s eyes snapped to each other, beaming. It was the first time she’d spoken after almost six months of having her. 

—

Yennefer was mixing potions to sell to the town, ingredients strewn across the floor and bottles piled up in the corners. Orchidea was with her because Jaskier was traveling and Yennefer didn’t trust her to be by herself. She picked up a sleeping potion, shoving the neck of the bottle into her mouth. Yennefer turned to her and sighed. 

“I love you, but please stop whatever it is that you’re doing,” she instructed, reaching out to take the potion from her. 

Orchidea bit down on the cork before she got it away, spilling it over her dress and the floor. Yennefer sighed once again. 

—

Yennefer came back one day, covered in mud and monster guts. The town had offered to pay her a small fortune if she would rid them of a creature they had in the woods. Jaskier shot her a look of sympathy from where he was feeding Orchadia. She stunk. 

Yennefer came closer, wanting to hold her baby before she needed to wash off—a source of comfort if you will, but Jaskier inched away from her, crinkling his nose in disgust. 

“Ew, get away from me,” he told her, moving further when Orchidea tried to get to her. “No, no, not you,” he pulled her closer, “you stay.”


	2. Year Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaskier is worried, Orchidea is in her terrible twos.

Orchidea giggled as Jaskier tossed her up in the air, catching her and rubbing his nose playfully against hers. Yennefer walked in and rolled her eyes at the faces he had begun making. 

“Don’t give me that look,” he teased. “You do the same.” 

“Yet my faces are always more attractive than yours,” Yennefer smirked.

The offense that overtook Jaskier’s face was genuine. “Excuse me? I am either more attractive than you or equally as attractive.” 

Yennefer reached her arms out to take Orchidea from him. 

“Don’t be vain, Jaskier.” 

Orchidea reached an arm out from where she was now situated on Yennefer’s hip and pointed at the man with a chubby finger. “Daddy’s vain,” she accused with a stern expression. 

Yennefer burst into laughter. 

“See what you’ve done, Yen? You’ve turned her against me!” 

—

Jaskier awoke in the late hours of the night, drenched in sweat and shaking. He looked out his window to see the moonlight streaming through in bright beams and the stars twinkling. He sighed and kicked the covers off, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand and stumbling out of the room. He entered the kitchen and stopped short when he saw Yennefer there before him, sipping a cup of tea. 

“You’re having nightmares again, aren’t you?” She asked, motioning for him to pour himself some. 

“… how did you know?” He asked, sitting down with a steaming up. 

“Jaskier, we’ve been traveling for a long time together,” she said, sliding sugar cubes over to him. “I know what it looks like when you have them.” 

Jaskier nodded. 

“The Cleansing again?” She inquired, knowing he had frequent dreams of his old life.

Jaskier shook his head. “Geralt.” 

Yennefer wrinkled her nose. “That bitch.” 

“Yen…”

“I know,” she put her hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Don’t talk about him like that even though he deserves it for what he told you.” 

Jaskier nodded drearily. “He pulled that shit and I’m still worried about him.”

“You love him,” Yennefer said it as though it was fact, which Jaskier supposed it was.

“Yeah,” Jaskier sighed. “Yeah I do.”

“What’s got you so worried?”

Jaskier rubbed his hand over his face. “I just haven’t heard anything about him for… two? years.”

“Well he has no one to sing about him now.” 

“I’d still hear things about ‘The White Wolf’ even when I wasn’t with him.” 

“He’s fine,” Yennefer assures. “He’s the best fighter I’ve known, he was the best while he was training. It’d take an army to knock him down.”

From Yennefer’s bedroom, Orchidea began to cry. Jaskier stood up, walking to her door but turned back to Yennefer first, “At least the two of us were already awake.” 

He came out holding the crying two year old, who clung to him like wet clothes. Yennefer reached out and petted her head. Jaskier began to hum a soothing melody, the one his mother sang to him all those years ago, the words still lost in his memory but the tune prominent in his mind. Orchidea calmed down almost immediately, laying her head against his shoulder, eyes fluttering shut despite her desperate attempts to keep them open. 

—

Orchidea wandered through the forest behind Jaskier, holding a pine cone in her hand. Glanced down at it, smiling deviously and chucked it at him. Jaskier turned around and saw Orchidea giggling, covering her mouth with her hands. Jaskier rushes forward and scooped her up, cradling her. 

“Did you throw that at me, little flower?” He asked with a stern face. 

“No,” the little girl giggled. 

“Then who did?” He inquired, exaggerated curiosity on his face. 

Orchidea looked around for something to put the blame on, and settled on a tree beside them. “He did it!” She exclaimed, pointing to it. 

Jaskier put her down and walked over to the tree, shoving his hands against his hips. “Did you throw that, Mister Tree?” He put on his sternest face, fighting the urge to break into a smile as he heard Orchidea giggling behind him. “You should feel ashamed, now I’m hurt because of you.” 

A beat of silence passed here the little girl was no longer giggling. 

“It was me, daddy,” Orchidea confessed. “I threw the pine cone.” 

Jaskier knelt down. “Why did you do that?” 

Orchidea shrugged, tears of shame forming in her eyes. “I thought it would be funny. I’m sorry.” 

Jaskier hugged her, whispering, “Don’t do it again, okay? Sometimes people can get hurt because you think something is funny.” 

He felt Orchidea nod and hoisted her up onto his hip. “Let’s go back to the house, yeah?”


	3. Year Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family of three is forced to move on and run into some familiar faces along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really don't like Filavandriel.

The glamour dropped when Orchidea was playing with the neighbor’s kid, her necklace that held the spell slipping from around her neck. The young boy had pointed to her ears and his mother had seen, coming to drag him away from her mere seconds later and spread the word to the rest of the village. They were chased out by dawn, but not before Yennefer and Jaskier cast the strongest curse on those who were small minded there: for their crops to wilt, for their family to shun them, for their children who shared their views to die a horrible death. Devastating misfortune. 

Orchidea was hurt from the experience, having seen people pointing at and mocking her, and Yennefer and Jaskier were ruthless when it came to their little girl. 

—

“I’m sad,” Orchidea announced as they were making camp in the woods for the night, too far from any towns and too tired to travel any longer.

“Why are you sad?” Yennefer asked, coming to kneel beside her. 

“Mocked me,” she murmured. “Why?” 

Yennefer looked up at Jaskier, who was tending to the roasting rabbits he caught earlier that night. Jaskier sighed and went to sit beside her. 

“Some people are…” he paused to think of a way to best phrase it for a three year old. “They don’t like it when people look different from them,” he reached out and touched her ears, feeling the points even though they were hidden. “And we look different.” 

“So they don’t like us?” She asked, large doe eyes staring up at him. 

Jaskier shook his head sorrowfully. “No, they don’t.” 

“But they can’t see that we’re different?” 

Jaskier pointed to the little necklace around her neck, identical to his own that Yennefer had made for them. “This keeps our features hidden so they don’t want to hurt us.” 

Orchidea began to cry. Yennefer dragged her onto her lap and held her close, Jaskier sitting beside her and hugging the both of them. 

“I’m sorry,” she blubbered. “I didn’t know it would fall!” 

“It’s not your fault, flower,” Yennefer told her. “You didn’t know.”

—

Yennefer stirred in her sleep, the small bit of sunlight glimpsing through the canopy of the trees. She stretched and yawned, frowning her brow when she realized a certain warmth was missing from beside her. She looked over at Jaskier, panicking when she saw that Orchidea wasn’t with him either. 

“Jaskier,” she nudged him with her shoe, scrambling to her feet. 

“What?” He mumbled sleepily. 

“Orchidea’s gone,” she said, already looking for boot prints. “She’s missing, Jaskier!” 

He shot up, running a hand through his hair. “What do you mean she’s gone?” 

“What the fuck do you think I mean? She’s missing!” Yennefer glared at him, more worried than angry. “Their boots lead this way.”

They set off to search for their child. 

“She couldn’t have been gone long,” Jaskier tried to assure both himself and Yennefer. “The prints are still fresh.” 

“I swear when I find the people who took her, I’m going to make them feel the worst imaginable pain,” she seethed, stomping along the path. 

“No,” Jaskier told her, firmly. “You are the one who can portal. Get her out of there, take her somewhere safe and come back when she’s okay. I can handle them as long as Orchidea’s gone.” 

Yennefer sighed, giving in. “Fine.” 

—

They found her with a man and a woman familiar to Jaskier, elves he had come to know as Filavandrel and Toruviel. As soon as she saw them, Orchidea broke from Toruviel’s grip and ran towards Yennefer, who portaled out of there before the two captors could process the situation. Toruviel, ever the aggressor, ran towards him, knives drawn with a snarl. Jaskier caught her wrists before she got to him and twisted them at an angle that made her screech in pain and drop the knives. He threw her away from him, reaching down to quickly grab one of the knives, bashing her head with the hilt when she came at him again. 

Filavandrel growled at him, holding out his sword. 

“Where did you take her?” The elven king demanded. 

“None of your business,” Jaskier returned, watching him carefully as he bent down to retrieve the other knife. 

“You deliver her to the one who wants her?” He asked. “Is that why you put that charm on her that hid her elf-ly features? So no one else would collect on the ransome before you?” 

“I hoped that if you knew anything, you’d know when to lay low and hide,” Jaskier hissed. 

Filavandrel charged at him, recklessly, as Jaskier might add. He dodged his hit, ducking under his swing. 

“You can’t talk to me like that,” Filavandrel glared. “I am a king.” 

“You are but a general leading an army of hopelessness,” Jaskier seethed. “A mere child fighting a cause only for it to soon be in vain.” 

“I am older than you, human,” he sneered. “I was barely a boy when the Great Cleansing happened and yet—”

“—you claim to be king. A boy who has no clue of his peoples customs? Their beliefs?” 

“I know enough to get by!” 

“You constantly act like a child!” Jaskier exclaimed. “You are rash—reckless. You do not think before you do, you allow yourself to be influenced by those who have no idea what it is like to rule.” 

“Human,” Filavandrel growled, charging once more. 

Jaskier caught his sword between his knives, twisting his arms and disarming him. 

“This is exactly what I mean!” he shouted. “Your father would be sorely disappointed in you if he saw this.” 

“You know nothing of my father.” Filavandrel backed away. Jaskier had hit a nerve he knew all too well.

“He died before you knew him,” Jaskier stated, even though the young elf before him already knew that fact. 

Jaskier fiddled with his necklace, having tucked the knives into his belt. He yanked it off, tired of playing a game with the one before him, exposing his true appearance. 

“You—you,” Filvanadriel sputtered. “You’re an elf.” 

“Yes,” Jaskier confirmed. “And much older than you.” 

—

Filvanadriel sat next to Toruviel on the ground, stroking her hair, still unconscious. Jaskier was leaning on a tree across from him, twirling a knife. The bark of the tree was digging into the back of his head, hair rustled in the back. 

“So you knew my father?” Filvanadriel inquired. “Not just him as a king, but him as a friend?” 

Jaskier nodded. “We were close, before and during the Great Cleansing. I fought by his side when he died.” 

He gazed off into the distance, recalling how his friend and king was struck down by a human. He regretted not fighting by his side, regretted not disobeying his orders to be one of the archers and not a ground soldier. That day, one of the very last days of the Cleansing, Jaskier had laid down his bow, buried it in Sodden with his quiver. He wondered if it was still there. It would be working even to this day. Elven weapons were sturdy. 

“What was he like?” Filvanadriel sounded desperate and as Jaskier looked into his eyes, he saw the open soul of those children who grew up in war—those children who never got to be children. 

He hoped Orchidea didn’t turn out like that. She wouldn’t, not if he could help it.

“He was kind,” Jaskier spoke. “He was ruthless in battle, and smart too.” 

Filvanadriel opened his mouth to say something but before the words could be uttered, Yennefer stepped through a portal, hands up defensively. However, when she saw that there was no struggle, she put them down, but still eyed them suspiciously.

“Is she safe?” Jaskier asked, his brow frowned. 

Yennefer nodded. “She’s with a nursemaid. Sorry I took so long, I wanted to make sure she knew what happened if anything went wrong with Orchidea.” 

Jaskier hummed, standing and dusting off his pants. “We’d better get going.” 

He turned to Filvanadriel, draping his glamour charm over his neck. “Be more careful. There are more of us hidden in plain than you know,” he went to walk away but stopped. “And invest in a charm or else there won’t be a king for much longer.” 

They stepped through the portal. However, as the Chaos shifted around them, they were not at all where they wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to hurry and get done with this series because I know if I do my other ideas, I'm never going to come back to it.   
> As for these ideas: I'm thinking of doing a dragon!Jaskier, a fae!Jaskier, and such. :) someone take my AO3 account.


	4. Year Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orchidea reflects on her time with the nursemaid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is purposefully short and written this way. She was kind of blanked out during this period of time.

When Orchidea was four, she spent the better part of a year with a nursemaid by the name of Matilda. Matilda was a nice woman with silver hair, crows feet engraved by her eyes, lines on her cheeks from feeling too much joy in life, kind blue eyes, and a smile that could light up a room. She was a woman who worked hard for both the people in the village and for Orchidea. She brushed her hair in the morning, fed her, let her play in the garden, and tucked her in at night. 

Orchidea was happy at first… then sad… then happy again because she missed her mom and dad but Matilda always made sure she had a good time. Often times, the kids in the village would include her in games and she had to think it was because they all knew Matilda. 

Matilda told her she was mature for her age, and Orchidea would thank her because she sees adults do it when they’re thinking something they probably shouldn’t say. She didn’t tell her that she was becoming mature so that when her mom and dad came back, they wouldn’t leave her again. They would see she could handle being with them. 

— 

When Orchidea was four, Matilda sat her down and told her that her mom and dad may not come back. Orchidea asked if they abandoned her. Matilda said that she had heard rumors of a sorceress and an elf at a battle with no recorded survivors and that they might not be alive. She told the young girl that her parents left her behind to keep her safe. Orchidea knew that they loved her, that they would be the ones who left her to ensure that she stays alive. She knew that her parents were strong. They would survive this. 

—

When Orchidea was four, she lost hope that her parents would come back for her.


	5. Year Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orchidea is home.

Orchidea placed the dough over the pan of cherries. Matilda’s hands guided her own, gripping gently onto her wrists. A bird tweeted outside of the window and she glanced up, smiling at it before turning her head back down but doing a double take.

Orchidea squealed, shaking Matilda’s arms off of her and rushing out the front door. 

Jaskier saw her coming and kneeled down just before she came crashing into his arms. They sobbed into each other’s shoulders, Jaskier keeping an iron grip on his baby. He could feel her tears soak through his torn jacket, stain his skin with all the years missed. 

She was more grown up but still had that adorable baby face that he and Yennefer loved. 

She pulled back, large eyes still quivering with tears. 

“Where’s mommy?” She asked, scanning quickly over Geralt (who Jaskier had forgotten was there) and Cirilla. 

“She-“ Jaskier cleared his throat. “She got hurt. But she’s going to get better, okay?” 

He hoisted her up on his hip, walking her over to the cart where they were pulling Yennefer. She was cleaned off now, and she looked better than she did the previous day. All she needed was rest, Jaskier had diagnosed. Rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disappointing ending, I know. Hoping for a reunion scene between Jaskier and Geralt? I felt like that deserved it's own part in the series.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for all the comments and kudos! I love receiving those notifications! Also, anything y'all would like to see from this trio? Comment requests and I might just put them in...


End file.
